SPATIUM NEGATIO. Transitions in urban space representation through the perspective of negativity. Marta López-Marcos. PhD dissertation. University of Seville, 2018. SPATIUM NEGATIO. Transitions in urban space representation through the perspective of negativity. PhD dissertation. Marta López-Marcos. University of Seville, Department of History, Theory and Architectural Composition. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Carlos Tapia Martín. University of Seville. Prof. Dr. David Grahame Shane. Columbia University, GSAPP. Tutor: Prof. Dr. Víctor Pérez Escolano. University of Seville. Seville, 2018. Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 8 (DE)CENTERING. 12 Diomede Islands. 16 Moonwatchers. 22 The Path of the Sun. 24 Decentering Europe (I). 35 Objectives of the project. 50 Challenging totalizing conceptions of space. 53 Counterspace and (ir)rationality as motor. 56 Socio-spatial processes in cities. 62 Architecture as a discipline. 63 Methodological approach. 66 Critical interpretive research. 72 Counterpublics and counternarratives. 76 (Extended) relational aesthetics. 78 Seductions and (counter)movements. 82 Spatium negatio. 95 Recovering negativity. 95 Space (as exteriority) and negativity. 112 Negative avant-gardes. Interactions in space, negativity and politics. 123 Counterspaces in the city. 141 On (the Politics of) Space. 161 Space as a social product. 161 Architecture after the spatial turn. 173 Politics of the (global) city. 185 Public space? 200 (RE)PLACING (or how the Western notion of space is challenged through social practice in urban places) 224 Space and anti-space. 227 Leftover spaces. 240 The square as a socio-spatial product. 249 SE-DUCTIO I: BEIJING. 276 New regime, new spaces. 280 Tiananmen square. 285 From China to the West and back. 295 (EM)BODYING (or how the corporeal emerges as a particular membrane between the interior/exterior spatial gap) 312 Against architecture. 317 (Counter)revolution and autonomy. 328 New publics and bodies in motion. From panoptic to panchoreographic. 343 SE-DUCTIO II: WARSAW. 368 Spaces-in-between. Oskar Hansen and the Open Form. 379 Anti-city, anti-monument. 389 Warsaw under construction. 402 (TRANS)FORMING (or how the immaterial supports an extended understanding of urban social space) 412 Specters of the city. 415 Inside/outside. Space-time compressions and flows. 429 Noopolitics and urban space. 448 SE-DUCTIO III: ISTANBUL. 475 “Crazy plans” and counter-plans. 479 Occupy! The case of Taksim. 493 Rendering visible the invisible. Urban space as commons. 501 (DIS)CLOSING. 518 Negativity beyond its borders. 520 Counterspaces as a tool for critique. 534 All that melted into air… 544 Urban politics and public spaces from a relational perspective. 551 Coda: Decentering Europe (II). 560 The West of the West. 560 East and South. Trajectories. 563 The moon over the archipelago. 568 ANNEX I: Interview with Steven K. Peterson. 578 A final comment by S.K. Peterson. 592 ANNEX II: Research map. 596 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The present work would never have been possible without the help and support of many people who have accompanied me throughout this process for several years. Of them all, it is fair to start by extending my gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Carlos Tapia Martín, because he already conceived this project long before it was in my mind. He showed me a new way of understanding (and doing) architecture, a discipline which I would probably have abandoned if not for his lectures in third year. He also introduced me to my other supervisor, Prof. Dr. David Grahame Shane, whom I would like to thank for his great patience and commitment, as well as his ability to bring order to chaos when the investigation was veering off course. The third component of this triad has been my academic tutor, Prof. Dr. Víctor Pérez Escolano, whose unconditional support and trust have been essential for this project. I would also like to thank the teams of the Institute of Architecture and Building Science and the Doctoral Program in Architecture of the University of Seville for the work they have done during these years to improve the quality and promote the internationalization of research. I am particularly grateful to Prof. Dr. Antonio Tejedor Cabrera, the director of both entities, for his guidance and interest in this project; and to the members of the research group Out_Arquias [HUM853] for supporting and giving me space. During my research stays at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Delft University of Technology, I have been fortunate to meet many people who have enriched my perspectives and contributed to this work. I am very grateful to Prof. Dieter Dietz and Prof. Dr. Roberto Cavallo for their welcome and assistance, allowing me to work jointly with their teams during those months. The contributions of some colleagues have been especially relevant to this project; therefore, I would like to thank Dr. Caroline Dionne, Dr. Darío Negueruela, Dr. Maurice Harteveld, Dr. Heidi Sohn, Dr. Susanne Komossa, Dr. Arnoud de Waaijer, Mark Pimlott and Oscar Rommens for their valuable comments and appreciations. I am also grateful to Dr. Gregory Bracken, Dr. Tuna Tasan Kok and Dr. Xiaoxi Hui for helping me get out of “the Eurocentric trap,” even for a few moments. I could not forget the students of the MSc 2 studio, who have reinforced my vocation for teaching and brought a refreshing outlook into some of my ideas. I am also indebted to the staff of the Architecture Department of the Regional Ministry of Development and Housing (Junta de Andalucía) for hosting me for a year and showing me the role of public administration with regard to the development of public space policies. I have really learnt a lot from them, since they have helped me to become aware of the reality of my immediate environment. I would also like to thank those who have allowed me to access their work and materials to build this work. In this sense, Steven K. Peterson holds a special place for his availability and generosity when discussing and updating his contributions. Thanks also to Igor Hansen for making available to me the wonderful archive of his parents, Oskar and Zofia Hansen, because the personal dicovery of their work 9 has been a deeply moving experience. Obviously, this acknoledgement extends to the staff of all the libraries that I have visited, both those of the aforementioned universities and those of the Architects’ Association of Catalonia and Kunsthalle Basel. Finally, these last words of gratitude are for the most important people in my life, without whom I would not have been able to carry this work to fruition. Therefore, it is dedicated to my parents, who have always supported me and put my career and well-being above everything else. To my sister Maria, for being my confidant and for being always there to share our mutual concerns. To Fran, for everything; for his patience, for being my positive counterpart and cheering me up in bad times. To my friends and colleagues, for reminding me that there is life beyond the screen and the word processor... and to my grandfather Tomás, wherever he is, for teaching me how to read, write and, above all, to think. 10 11 (DE)CENTERING. Ich habe den Geist Europas in mich genommen –nun will ich den Gegenschlag thun! (Friedrich Nietzsche, Fragmente Anfang 1880 bis Sommer 1882, vol. 3, chapter 9, 8 [77]) The sun never shines at the same time in the same way. The Geopolitics of philosophers Peter Sloterdijk and Alain Finkielkraut clearly point it the Sun out during an intense dialogue by stating that “geopolitics of the sun have become simple and plain geopolitics” (2008, 149). The image of the sun has been habitual in religious and philosophical discourses, since it functions as an absolute point of reference from which to establish a relation towards the Other(s) while defining space in time. In this regard, the philosopher Ray Brassier transforms Freud’s words in Beyond the Pleasure Principle: “In the last resort, what has left its mark on the development of [philosophy]1 must be the history of the earth we live on and of its relation to the sun” (Brassier 2003, 421). Every day, when the clocks in London strike 10 in the morning and until 11.59, three different days coexist in the Earth at the same time. During this short period, it is 23.00 the previous day at the American Samoa, and 00.00 the next day at Kirimati Island, in Kiribati. This temporal juxtaposition, which takes place day after day, is a product of the human need for organizing spaces and times with respect to natural courses and the path of the sun. Although the cycle is permanent and has slightly changed in millions of years, the measurement of time has helped to generate a differential spatial conscience. Even if each point in the Earth’s surface has a specific solar time –more or less similar to that of the areas included within its time zone, a system which became popular during the second half of the nineteenth century– each region has adapted this zone according to geopolitical reasons. Therefore, time zones are not identical segments, but irregular areas covering the surface of the planet. Thus, natural time is distorted and translated into a sort of “functional” time, a time depending on geopolitical circumstances. For example, most of 1 Freud was referring to “organisms.” Introduction 13 01 the EU countries share a same time zone (GMT+1), while some of them –such as Portugal, or some islands of Spain–2 are geographically located within the GMT time zone. Continental China shows another particular situation, as the whole country is included within the Beijing time zone (GMT+8) while, following strictly geographic parameters, it covers five of them. World as Domination of time and space, as well as the relations of constellations interdependence established between them, assigns to each community a point of reference from which to understand their reality, themselves and the others.3 Thus, the world appears as a constellation, a myriad of times and spaces which coexist and happen 2 The time zone of mainland Spain was changed in 1940 during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, in order to make it coincide with the German schedule.